Study Guide in MS Word format

Overview of content

This course is designed to develop simultaneously your practical and theoretical understanding of the nature of mass media texts, how they are constructed, their rhetorical and ideological potential and the functions they serve in society. The course will equip you to account, both descriptively and critically, for the verbal styles and textual organisations of mass media texts while developing your ability to construct such texts yourselves. The practical strand will focus particularly on skills related to researching and writing news, current affairs and features of all types.

You will be invited to offer feature articles/packages (either print-style or podcasts/vodcasts) for the course’s online magazine, tentatively titled Adelaide Exposed or Adelaide Uncovered or Adelaide Eyeor Adelaide Voice (alternative suggestions warmly welcomed, including those which don’t include any reference to ‘Adelaide’.) Currently the idea for the magazine (still open to discussion) is that it will cover news, current affairs, social issues, sport, local history/heritage, human interest, lifestyle, the media, the arts and music from an Adelaide or South Australian perspective. It will be aimed at an audience assumed to be intelligent, reasonably well informed and wanting more depth than is typically provided in publications such as The Advertiser.

Conduct of the course

Seminars

The two-hour seminar will focus on both theoretical and practical aspects, though the weighting will be in favour of the practical. You can expect to do a lot of media text writing in these sessions. Time will also be spent analysing, deconstructing and critiquing published/broadcast media writing.

On most occasions you will need to do some substantial preparation in advance of each seminar. For example, you will typically need to have completed media writing exercises or analyses, or to have written actual reports, features, reviews etc which you will bring along for discussion during the seminar. On some occasions you will be required to submit the writing exercises to me by email, usually at least two days in advance of the seminar (i.e. if your seminar is on Monday, then your work needs to reach me by Saturday evening, if your seminar is on Tuesday, your work needs to reach me by Sunday evening.). This will be clearly indicated in the course outline.

It is intended that by the second-half of the course (after the mid semester break) we will be in a position to start publishing student work on our online magazine website. The work you produce for the two assessed feature writing exercises should be written with this magazine in mind.

(The University requires me to remind you that attendance at seminars is compulsory and that you should obtain a medical certificate if you are forced to miss due to illness. Absence for other unavoidable reasons should also be explained. It is also usual practice at the university for those students who miss more than three seminars without explanation to be required to make up the missed work or to be failed.)

A reading pack of photocopied articles and book chapters – supplied as Reading Pack 2 (available from the Copy Centre)

Further articles and book chapters made available for reading or download via the library’s electronic resources. Links to these resources will be made available below..

Assessment

Option 1 – journalistic writing

1. (25%) Shorter writing exercises (continuous assessment).

2 nd-year level students must submit a minimum of 3 of the following exercises and 3 rd-year level students a minimum of 4. (Obviously you are strongly encouraged to complete and submit all the exercises.)

1. Costello Speech Report (week 3)

2. Sleep Deprivation Report (week 3)

3. Drug Trial Disaster Report (week 4)

4. Multicultural Music short feature (week 6)

5. Macedonia Recognition Crisis Feature (week 8)

6. Hospital Outrage Report (week 9)

For 2 nd-year level students, the final mark for this component is the average of their best three exercises.

For 3 rd-year level students, the final mark for this component is the average of their best four exercises.

2. (35%) First feature writing exercise

Either individually or as a two-person collaboration.

Due midnight, Friday Sept 21, via the digital dropbox.

Step 1

To conceive, research and write/produce a feature article (or podcast/vodcast) suitable for publication on the course’s online magazine website. You should have in mind a reader/listener who is reasonably well informed and who is interested in more depth than is typically provided in the mainstream media. You are encouraged to either focus on local issues/events or, at least, to provide a local perspective. The subject matter can be news/current affairs, social trends/issues, lifestyle issues, sport, human interest, local history/heritage, the media/advertising, or the arts/music.

The article/package should be an informative feature, not a commentary/opinion piece. That is to say, you should be reporting and not arguing a case or presenting your own opinions.

Option 2 – mixture of journalistic writing and an academic essay

1 (25%) & 2 (35%) the same as above.

3. (40%) Academic Essay

Topic to be decided upon through consultation with your tutor. For example, a critical analysis of media coverage of some issue (i.e. global warming, the war in Iraq, aboriginal languages, celebrity, etc.); comparative analysis of two or more news reports covering the same event; analysis of the style and rhetorical strategy of a prominent media commentator; and so on.

[In Reading Pack 2] White, S., 1991, Chapter 10, "The structure of hard news", in Reporting in Australia, Macmillan, South Melbourne.
Useful in conjunction with the "Introduction to News Writing" seminar notes - provides another perspective on what it takes to come up with good leads/intros.

Extension Reading (optional) - just if you want to go into some more depth.

[Reading Pack 2] Rich, Carole, 2000, Chapter 3, ‘The Basic News Story’ from Writing and Reporting News, Wadsworth Publishing Company, Belmont CA
Provides a north American perspective on how to write news. Some of the terms used (i.e. ‘nut graph’) are not current among Australian journalists.

[Reading Pack 2] Evans, H., 1972, Chapter 5, "The Structure of a News Story - Intros", in Newsman's (sic) English, Heinemann, Oxford
Again from the perspective of writing skills. Somewhat dated, and also sexist - i.e. the title and frequent references to ‘deskmen’. However, worth reading as a classic of journalism training which provides some very insightful advice from the British perspective. The author, Harold Evans, was a celebrated editor of The Sunday Times in the UK.

Rich, Carole, 2000, Chapter 11, ‘Leads and Nut Graphs’ / Chapter 12, ‘Body Building and Story Structures’, from Writing and Reporting News, Wadsworth Publishing Company, Belmont CA [Reading Pack 2]
North American perspective - Interesting and insightful account of different types of leads and different approaches to writing news.

Evans, H., 1972, Chapter 6, "The Structure of a News Story – The News Lead", in Newsman's (sic) English, Heinemann, Oxford
More again from the British perspective – slightly old fashioned but still very useful advise..

Bell, Allan, 1991, Chapter 8, ‘Telling Stories’, from The Language of News Media, Blackwell, Oxford [Reading Pack 2]
Just if you are interested in taking narrative-theory based analyses a bit further – theoretical rather than practical

Week 4

(Aug 13 – 17)

Lecture

Bias, Objectivity and Point of View in News and Current Affairs
Lecture handout required: [Link]

Seminar Preparation

1. Writing Exercise 3: Drug Trials report – radio/podcast & TV (The first exercise - Exercise 1- is to be submitted by email - mcd@lingo.info - at least two days in advance of the week 4 seminar) [Link]

2. Seminar Notes Unit 3A: News as Rhetoric (contains some discussion points to be prepared in advance of the seminar) [Link]

2. 1 st feature preparation (see Assessment details above). Come up with an idea for a feature article for the 1st assessed feature article exercise. Prepare a five minute ‘pitch’ for the article to be presented to the class during the seminar – i.e. a short proposal designed to ‘sell’ the idea to a features editor in which you indicate (a) the subject matter, (b) the angle you propose to take, (c) what you believe makes the subject matter newsworthy, moving, startling, intriguing, entertaining, etc, and (d) what research you will be doing, who you propose to talk to/interview.

Seminar

Interview Workshop – Macedonia Recognition Controversy

Presentation of feature idea ‘pitches’.

Required Reading

Ricketson (text book): chapters 3, 4 & 5 (Chapter 3 will be discussed in the seminar next week, if time permits.)